I Belize in MAGIC! MITSUGIRLY revisits the Western Route. My Novel.

[mitsugirly]

Sakari absolutely LOVES cottage cheese. So, when she found a fruit plate that had cottage cheese listed with it, she knew that's what she wanted for "desert".

 

When it arrived...oh my. Here comes that shocked face again.

 

 

She removed the strawberries, took out her spoon, ran it from one end of the cottage cheese to the other and had 1 scoop of it on her spoon. Yum, that was it. It was done and over instantly.

 

The girls giving birthday hugs.

 

 

It was officially pool time! We headed back to our room to change into our bathing suits and Sakari decided to leave the room steward one of our friendship rocks.

 

 

Off to the water park we went and met up with Kendra and family.

 

 

 

Sakari headed for the water slides and she's up there in the crowd about midway.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Meanwhile...the hubby was chilling and digesting his belly while using social media to show everyone what he was doing on his birthday.

 

 

 

Brayden enjoying the ......what does Carnival call this? NCL we always call it the toilet bowl...but they actually swirl around and then you drop down the middle and out below. Carnival you just swirl around and stop then have to walk down the steps in the middle.

 

 

Kam participated in spraying everyone as they went down the water slides...as long as she wasn't getting sprayed she was good.

 

 

Right when it was time for mommy to come down the tube and Kam spray her...these 2 girls showed up, tapped Kam on the shoulder and said to come play with them. They held hands and danced around and Kam completely missed mommy coming down the slide and I had to take over the job of spraying them.

 

 

Kendra and B

 

 

 

Kam got caught under the water bucket dumping once and you would have thought someone was killing her. I will have this child liking water by the end of the cruise!

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Sakari trying to get Kam to go down the baby water slides. She wasn't having it. I told her to come with mamaw. I sat down, went to put her with me and an employee yelled at me and said no! He said "no adults". Really? Is it that big of a deal? Since when? We have been on tons of cruises and they never had a problem. Then he said "one time, just you, one time only...just you". Um, I'm only sitting here to try to get my granddaughter to go down the water slide. I'm not sitting here because I want to go down it. Really? He kept saying "go...one time". I told him, if my granddaughter is not going, neither am I. I really don't know what the big deal was. I actually watched him allow 2 grown men (and I'm going to use the word "hefty" here to be extremely nice) go down racing each other later in the cruise. They went so fast that their bottoms slammed into the end of the slide and there wasn't any water left in the slide when they were done. What's the difference I ask???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I absolutely love how colorful this area is. It's very inviting and fun looking.

 

 

 

 

 

The one thing I found weird about this area is there wasn't a bathroom close by. We discovered this once when both Kendra & I had to go to the bathroom and went inside and down the hall and ended up in the spa. Well, I wasn't about to walk all the way back so we just went in the bathrooms/shower area there and then back out. For a waterpark to not have a restroom close by when there's tons of kids in this area is just crazy planning.

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Around 2:30pm, we decided that we would like to try out the ropes course and head to the other side of the "fun" area.

 

We headed back to the room to get dry clothes on and grab our tennis shoes and found that we had a towel ?animal? or...flower already sitting on our bed...in the middle of the day. Weird.

 

 

Daddy decided that he would stay down below and take pictures of us girls on the ropes.

 

As we were standing in line, Sakari spotted this....a friendship rock....and it wasn't hers!! Oh the excitement!

 

 

I posted it to our roll call and it was one of the ladies on there that had left it on the ship.

 

 

 

 

We had a lot of fun. It wasn't very crowded either. We could actually continue to go around and around as much as we wanted.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

I remember seeing the ropes course on the Carnival ship for the first time (online) and thought how much fun that would be. It was shortly after that, NCL put in their ropes course, ziplining and plank over the water. I did NCL's ropes course (several ships) before getting on a Carnival ship that had one and after doing NCL's, I have to say Carnival's isn't much. It's so small, just a square and doesn't take long to complete. NCL's is MAJOR! Like goes so many different directions, all over the place. It's crazy. But, this one is still good for a little fun and I'm not complaining.

 

They also have putt putt in this area below. Sakari would decide to leave one of her friendship rocks here.

 

 

It was her painted dot whale tail rock

 

 

We did a little putt putt and Kam cheated most of the game "Go Kam!" We cheered her on and she was excited.

 

 

 

I noticed the girls were playing some foosball....I just had to join in and help Sakari show Kendra who's boss.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I was getting a little hungry. It had been awhile since we had breakfast. The hot dog stand was open and I headed over there for a hot dog. Only they didn't have any hot dogs and my only choice was a sausage. I only took a few bites because it wasn't that good and the outside skin was really tough and I could barely chew it.

 

Sakari left another rock (dolphin) at the hotdog stand after they closed.

 

 

After not eating my sausage, I looked around for the kids and heard someone yell for me. They were back on the ropes course again.

 

 

I would take videos of Kendra trying to walk the "beam" and post it on my social media with the caption "I can't believe she was a gymnast once" or something along those lines...only for her gymnastic coach to come back with "I thought I taught her better than that". LOL

 

Then came a game of bean bag toss.

 

 

Brayden had made a couple friends and was playing pool.

 

 

 

I will admit, Sakari is better at getting the bean bags in the hole than Kendra.

 

This girl is constantly biting her fingernails...like constantly.

 

 

B had disappeared and when I ask Kendra where he was, she said he had went with his friends to go play basketball. B is a lot bigger than Sakari and appears older, but I still get worried at how he has pretty much done things on his own for several years now. I'm just a worry-wart. But they are growing up. This would be the first cruise I allowed Sakari out of my site and trust her with going places on her own (I would secretly watch her for the most part). She's very responsible, so I'm not too worried about her...it's people around her that I worry about.

 

When we were done playing all the games at the Sports Square (it was so hot and humid) we decided to go back to the basketball court to check on B. Only we didn't see him of course. I instantly said "see, you shouldn't have let him run off like that because you know he's not going to be where he said he was going to be". Then about 20 seconds later, here he come from around the corner. He was getting a drink of water outside of the basketball court and still there. Oops. My bad. Ok, maybe he was good this time.

 

[mitsugirly]

I was tired of being in the heat and decided it was time to take Sakari to the kids club for awhile.

 

Along the way, she placed another friendship rock. It was one of her favorites...A wolf on the hill howling at the moon.

 

 

She would also put out her bird.

 

 

And another upstairs on the way to the kids club.

 

 

When we arrived, they said it was "family game time" and we could not drop her off but were welcome to stay with her and play. It has a/c so I'm game for just about anything at this point with air.

 

We pulled out a game of connect. Only when we opened the box, one of the legs was missing and there were only 5 game pieces.

 

We decided to play twister, but the spinner board was broke and they had rigged it with a rubber band trying to hold the spinner on. You had to hold the board, pull the rubber band down below and hold it tight and then try to keep it loose enough for the hand to spin. This got old really quick and I gave up.

 

We pulled out a game of trouble. I knew the dice had to be there as long as the bubble was. Well it was there, but there were only 2 yellow game pieces, 1 blue game piece and 3 red pieces.

 

What is the deal here? Do these kids have anything to play? I was getting frustrated.

 

Then we pulled out the Jenga...whew...all there to my knowledge. It was a fun game. We had a lot of laughs. Sakari's pretty good at this game....but so was I. hehehehehe

 

 

 

 

By the time we were able to actually find a game 1) with all the pieces 2) that worked & 3) that we liked...they started saying it was time to clean up and leave.

 

We finished our game anyhow and was the last to leave. Sakari lost that game.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

It was 6pm and that meant that Sakari could officially go to dinner with the kids. We headed down to the buffet and checked her in for dinner. She left a rock along the way: "Calm", which is what I was about to be after offing these children.

 

 

 

Kendra brought Kam and B. Prior to the cruise she hyped up the kids club and said it was school to Kam. Kam has been begging to go to school for awhile now. We didn't know how she would react to this kids club. But she managed to go and sat in the chair with "sissy" (Sakari). Kendra darted out of her sight super fast.

 

We watched from a distance and when they put food in front of her, she looked at them really weird and pushed it away in disgust. I don't remember what they had on the plate but Kendra informed me that Kam usually only likes chicken nuggets. Well, I'm not sure how she is supposed to survive this entire cruise then.

 

It was time for adult things and that meant the casino for us. Heidi was treating me pretty well tonight.

 

 

 

We were killing time until the comedy show at 7:30pm and then headed off to see the show.

 

 

 

The guy was funny and we love to laugh so I always love to go see these shows.

 

After the show, we raced to the theater to catch the "88" show. The seats were full and we were forced to sit all the way at the top and all the way at the end close to the wall by the stage above. I couldn't see anything...like anything unless they were at the tip of the stage toward the audience. It got annoying not knowing what was going on. What I did see, I really didn't care for. I really don't care for these singing and dancing shows honestly. I've seen a few good ones and then mostly terrible ones. Just my honest opinion is Carnival's entertainment does not compare to NCL's line up. It just don't. So, we would decide not to go to any more of the song and dance shows the rest of the cruise. We ended up leaving that night. It made no sense to stay and not be able to see and not enjoy it.

 

We headed to the buffet for dinner. I guess you could say this was our lunch and dinner combined since we hadn't had lunch (unless you call 2 bites of a sausage lunch). Us adults wanted to enjoy it in peace.

 

 

They had some noodles (Carbonara) that were really really good! They serve these noodles at one of the Italian Specialty restaurants on NCL and it's what I always get. Yummy!

 

 

The one thing I hate is the hours of the buffet on Carnival. It just makes no sense. The kids club closes at 10pm. The buffet usually closes at 9:30pm. You are forced to feed the kids either pizza or something from the deli...or they live on ice cream all week, which they would have no complaints about.

 

We decided to go up and get the kids early just to make sure they got to eat. We wasn't sure if their 6pm dinner with the kids club would carry them over until breakfast the next day (or if they even ate any of it).

 

At 9:45pm, they actually still had the buffet open, but was closing. The kids would not starve tonight!

 

And I would help myself to dessert now and have some bread pudding.

 

 

 

Sakari would leave another rock on the table and we would head back to the room to pack for our first day in port tomorrow.

 

 

 

When we arrived in the room...they had taken our towel "animal/flower". Boo!

 

We headed to bed at 11:30pm. Zzzzz

 

 

[Clarasgrandma]

Looking forward to more of your review! We cruise Magic in January for first time...same itinerary.

[mitsugirly]

DAY 3: COZUMEL Monday 9-6pm

 

 

 

I set my alarm for 7:30am. However, Kendra was messaging me at 7:27 before it even went off and well...I was excited and couldn't sleep anyhow.

 

I got my crew up and we headed up to the buffet area for a quick breakfast. For some reason I wasn't really feeling this breakfast. The eggs were SUPER runny this morning, so I only took a spoonful and just couldn't stomach them. The bacon police was out in full force and I would give them the hand signal to "come on with it".

 

 

 

 

Can't forget these yummy "breakfast pastries". They hit the spot.

 

 

 

After breakfast we went to check out the sea and it was as calm as can be. The skies were sunny and it didn't look like it was going to thunderstorm today at all (even though the weather was still saying it was).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We headed back to the room to grab our things...but first Sakari left another friendship rock.

 

 

We were able to get off the ship at 9:15am and immediately started taking pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

It looked as if it had rained here in Cozumel already. Good, maybe it won't later today then.

 

 

We had previously been to this port at least once before. So not a new port location for us.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

There's just so many photo ops at this port.

 

 

 

 

We finally made our way out of the winding maze of souvenir shops and out to the taxi area.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We told the putteminthetaxiworkers that we needed a taxi for 7 people to The Money Bar. They looked at us and looked at the kids and looked at us again. "um, senorita dis not place for kids". I know this. We are going to the Money Bar. "um senorita...." I know!!! "um, senorita, you been before?" I know what it looks like, I know what type of water it is, I know about the "beach". Yes! Take us there.

 

So off we went. I researched ahead of time and knew that a taxi would cost "us" around $11. Once we added 4 more people, the price was $22.

 

We left the taxi stand at 10:04am and arrived at the Money Bar at 10:07am. Super quick and easy ride.

 

 

For those wanting to know the location to the cruise ports...You can see the furthest cruise port is Punta Langosta. This is where NCL usually docks (unless they have too many NCL ships there that day and then they will either dock out a bit and tender, which I've done before, or they will come down to the International Pier, which I've done before).

 

So, looking at this map, if you are on Carnival, you are docking at the closer pier to the beaches in that direction and The Money Bar is the closest on my map I made.

 

 

I have seen many pictures of what the Money Bar looked like. I knew that it was fairly small and no actual "walk-in" beach. I knew that it was very similar to Chankanaab, which we had been to before and loved it, but on a very small scale in comparison.

 

Let's be honest, the ONLY reason why I came here is that I wanted to snorkel. I had heard that it was a pretty awesome place to snorkel and was comparable to Chank, which I enjoyed the snorkeling there.

 

Our plan was to spend the morning there snorkeling and having a few drinks and then catch a cab to Paradise Beach for the rest of the day so that the kids could have a little fun too. (Although when I say "kids" I'm pretty much talking about Kam because Sakari and B love snorkeling just as much as me, so they would have been fine staying at The Money Bar). However, I have been wanting to check out Paradise for such a long time. As a matter of fact, every time we come to Cozumel I have wanted to go there but ended up somewhere else instead. I don't know why. So, what better way than to go to two different places, get to experience both, AND write reviews on both. Right?

 

We arrived and immediately came down to the man-made beach area, which is above the ocean area. It was bright and sunny out and I was excited to see that.

 

 

There were a lot of clouds in the sky and CHECK OUT THIS WEIRD CLOUD in the picture below. Looks how close it is and crazy looking.

 

 

This is the bar area.

 

 

I have to admit, this place was a lot bigger than what I had pictured or seen pictures of. It looks so much bigger in person.

 

There was a huge deck with plenty of seating.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Off to the side of the huge deck, you walk down some steps and onto their man-made beach area. It also had plenty of tables and chairs and lounge chairs behind that.

 

 

 

The kids found some tree swings and had a blast.

 

 

There was a place to rent equipment

 

 

The bar/restaurant was huge. There was plenty of seating everywhere.

 

 

There was a dock and I assume they would take you out snorkeling or whatever you wanted to do. (They offered massages as well, as you can see on the sign in the picture, but I have no idea the pricing and for how long because I don't do massages).

 

 

The bathrooms:

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

There was a thread on the Costa Maya forum that someone came back from an AI that I had been to (and others also suggested) that they gave negative feedback because of the "nasty" bathrooms with signs that did not allow you to throw toilet paper in the toilets and made you put them in trash cans. They were disgusted. I told them this is the norm every where you go in the Caribbean and their sanitation would not handle things like toilet paper and they are not in the US with these types of luxuries. They were just not having it. They swore that they had never seen these signs before or experienced having to put toilet paper in trash cans instead of the toilet and claimed they were an experienced cruiser. Well, most Caribbean beach clubs are not the Hilton Hotel and I don't know what type of places they go to when in port...but every place I went this time (and other times) had those signs!

 

 

 

I assume this little place with the curtains to the left is the massage place.

 

 

The water was a little furious today.

 

 

 

Sakari was on a mission to save the stranded fish from the angry ocean throwing the water up on the rocks and beach area.

 

In the picture below, you can see even more area's on down of lounge chairs.

 

 

And I'm not sure just how far their property went, but there were also areas on down with chairs and trees.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

More of the chairs and beachfront area:

 

 

 

 

I had to get my snorkel girl picture for the day.

 

 

 

Shortly after we arrived, it started to sprinkle. The lounge chairs we were in were sitting under the trees, which blocked the rain. But it didn't last but maybe 10 minutes if that and we didn't get wet. Either way, I was planning on being wet in a few minutes anyhow when I went snorkeling.

 

More of the area.

 

 

 

There is a sign that shows the snorkeling area:

 

 

Dzul-Ha Reef...Dzul-Ha is what The Money Bar used to be called. So, if you are ever trying to look it up either online or on these boards, you can also search that name and it will come up.

 

 

[theriac]

I was on the week after you, and I'm curious did you notice a lot of flies in the buffet area?

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Forums mobile app

[mitsugirly]

Here is a short video of the bar/restaurant area (sorry that it is sorta blurry in the beginning but it will show you just how big this restaurant area is with plenty of seating).

 

0wJp9s2U46g

 

 

Here is a short video of right outside the restaurant area with the outside dining and lounge chairs.

dK-G32eXE9s

[mitsugirly]

Ok, time for bed. I'll start off tomorrow with the snorkeling.

 

I hope everyone is still enjoying.

[E@syPe@zy]

Loving it Kim!

You know how to keep the momentum going and the story line fresh and entertaining. Get some much deserved rest.

CB

[Athankfulheart]

Your favorite "pastry" is mine too. I have seen Carnival call them "vanilla crowns".

 

Sent from my SM-N920V using Forums mobile app

[chicchic325]

The breakfast pastry is called a kolache in Texas. I've also referred to them as "danish"